The Best Italian Food in Turkey

Red-and-white checked tablecloths, Italian paintings on the walls, and a terrace that looks straight out over the pebble beach: Arka is a trattoria in the old-school sense, the kind Bodrum keeps coming back to. Neapolitan pizzas and a long roster of house-made pastas do most of the work, with seafood risotto pulling steady duty alongside them. The Michelin Guide awarded it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

You ring a buzzer to get in, which sets the tone for this three-floor Italian restaurant tucked into Kadıköy's bohemian Moda neighbourhood. The cooking is unfussy in the right way, leaning toward slow-braised things and hand-cut pasta, the kind of food that makes you order tiramisu without needing to see the menu. The room hums with the easy energy of a place that knows its regulars will be back next week regardless.

A side street in Beyoğlu hides this modern Italian restaurant inside a dim, handsomely dressed historic building where the art rotates but the dark wood stays. The kitchen leans on serious sauces and careful seasoning rather than architectural plating, and a menu that changes often keeps regulars from getting too comfortable. The bar is worth a stop on its own before or after.

Fresh pasta made in full view of the long communal tables is the engine of this casual Italian-Turkish restaurant in Ataşehir, a neighborhood that rarely draws visitors from the city center but probably should. The kitchen leans on local Turkish ingredients, folding them into Italian shapes: Obruk cheese turns up in ravioli, sage and butter keep things honest. Sharing is the format, booking ahead is the move.

Inside the Conrad Hotel in Beşiktaş, Monteverdi is a formal Italian restaurant that anchors itself in Lombard cooking while quietly letting the rest of the peninsula in, Neapolitan pizza included. The kitchen leans on the kind of combinations that feel both obvious and considered: porcini risotto, sea bass dressed with fermented tomatoes and mascarpone. Service is polished without being stiff, which at this price point is the least surprising thing about it.

The terrace on the ninth floor of Swissôtel looks straight out over Izmir Bay, and at sunset the light does things that would embarrass a photographer. Scappi is a Mediterranean-Italian restaurant where the kitchen, partly open, runs a wood-fired pizza oven alongside house-made pasta and fresh local fish. The cooking leans into Aegean ingredients with an Italian hand. Book ahead; the terrace fills fast with people who clearly planned better than you did.

Perched on a sprawling terrace above Istanbul's skyline, Terrazza Italia is the sit-down Italian restaurant inside Eataly at Zorlu Center, so the produce sourcing is rather well sorted. The kitchen leans into the classics with enough creativity to keep things interesting, vitello tonnato and handmade pasta among the familiar landmarks. The menu runs long, which is either reassuring or a mild commitment depending on your disposition.

Ferida sits in a stone square inside the Fişekhane complex in Zeytinburnu, which sets the mood before you even sit down. It's a contemporary restaurant built around new Bosnian and Balkan cooking, with Neapolitan-style pizza reinterpreted through local instincts, dried meats and truffles doing the talking. The wine list is taken seriously, the service matches the room, and the whole thing feels more international than its address might suggest.